The Devil’s Academy: A Supernatural Riot of Devilish Proportions

Imagine a world where instead of fire or active shooter drills, there were demon drills. If demons were summoned as The Devil’s Academy suggests, then we’re lucky no one else ever found a way to repeat the incident that transpired at the Miami Aerospace Academy (MAA) on Oct. 25, 1979.

But if you want to know what really happened that day, you’re not going to find that out from the second of two new Shock Docs premiering this month on Travel Channel and discovery+. Don’t get me wrong. You’ll get a super sensationalized and overly dramatic account of the events.

But you won’t hear from key participants, like from any of the students who were actually possessed. Or even from any of the teachers who were there that day, including the science teacher accused of teaching about the occult that allegedly led to the Devil infiltrating the private school.

Talking heads aplenty appear in The Devil’s Academy, though. There are two paranormal investigators, a demonologist, an exorcist, a couple of psychologists, and a university professor.

It also possesses a few eyewitnesses, including one student who attended the school in 1979, a firefighter who was one of the first responders on the scene that day, as well as a former Miami Dade sergeant.

Which is all fine and good, but it’s the students who were directly affected that make the story. Hearing from them would’ve been much more interesting and impactful.

But the talking heads recruited for this Shock Docs express opinions galore about how and why the Devil enrolled in the school that day. Let’s take a look at what happened.

The 1979 Riot at the Miami Aerospace Academy

Paranormal investigator and podcaster Rob Morphy claimed the story of the Miami Aerospace Academy (MAA) was the “most significant paranormal event in U.S. history.” Reverend Bob Larsen called it “the largest spiritual contagion of this kind of mass possession that has ever occurred in American history.” All because some of the students claimed to be possessed by the Devil.

Those claims are dubious at best.

However, there’s no disputing that a riot broke out at the school on Oct. 25, 1979.

“Police said they were baffled by the outbreak yesterday at the Miami Aerospace Academy, which they said led to ‘mass hysteria’ that had students kicking walls, tearing at doors, talking of witches and screaming about demons,” The Miami News reported.

As Miami police officer Harry Cunnill was quoted in the article, “The whole school went berserk.”

“Everybody just got carried away and it was a riot,” teacher Iliana Viciedo said.

The Tampa Tribune reported that Dan LeMay, the spokesman for the Miami Fire Department, explained MFD received “an urgent call about an unconscious boy.”

When they got there, students claimed “something supernatural” had possessed the unconscious boy. They also found other students lying on the floor, about six or seven of them “flaked out.” Needless to say with such a scene unfolding before them, they called in the police to help.

They eventually pinpointed the catalyst of the chaos to a 10th grade science class. Allegedly a teacher had demonstrated hypnotism that morning. But students also told firemen they’d been another class about the supernatural too. And some kids admitted to having used a Ouija board. Then…all Hell broke loose.

You can see why the story gained national attention with details like that.

The Devil’s Academy Takes the Facts and Runs with the Them

Combining re-enactments with commentary from experts and the few eye-witnesses who agreed to go on camera, The Devil’s Academy dramatizes the story to the max.

I say the “few eye-witnesses who agreed to go on camera” after reading some very enlightening threads in the Miami Aerospace Academy Facebook group.

The Devil’s Academy presents the school and its founder, Evaristo Marina, as a fraud at best and a power-hungry disciplinarian of a demon at worst. One who was nowhere to be found the day of the riot.

He definitely spoke to reporters afterward though, claiming it was a smear campaign. At the time, he was running for a Miami City Commission seat. Elections were a week away. He felt someone had put the students up to the shenanigans. Maybe, but that would’ve had to be a hell of a payoff to get so many kids to act out like that.

Not that scandals didn’t plague Marina’s school, especially in the 1980s, which in part led to its closure. But they didn’t involve demons. They involved a 5-year-old female cadet, as students were called, being raped by a 16-year-old cadet.

That’s what led to The Miami Herald reporting that “investigators from several state agencies” found “students living in filthy conditions.” (The school boarded some students.) Investigators also “uncovered allegations of sexual and physical abuse by other students.”

As for Marina himself, he liked to portray himself as a general, even preferring to be called “El General,” even though he’d never attained that military rank. The fact he’s guilty of committing stolen valor is among the reasons he makes a good target to lash out at.

But he’s also long since deceased and unable to speak to any of the claims made against him or defend himself. The documentary took full advantage of that and it didn’t look pretty.

It did get the cohesiveness of the school’s students right, though. That’s quickly evident on their Facebook group. While some admit the school was a “clown show,” many also have fond memories of their time there and the bonds they formed with fellow cadets/classmates.

Another thing that’s evident is their disdain for the making of this Shock Docs. The majority of them refused to be interviewed for it. Some who attended after 1979 never even knew such a riot had happened. If any watch, it’d be interesting to hear their reactions to this clown show of a documentary.

And maybe the incident was swept under the rug, as the documentary suggests with heavy conspiracy theory overtones. But maybe there was another reason for that.

LSD and Pregnancy?

A couple of storylines are emphasized in The Devil’s Academy, including a girl who ran into the bathroom following the classroom hypnotism and was then witnessed levitating as she screamed, “The Devil’s inside me!”

Allegedly she and her friends used an Ouija board and also summoned Bloody Mary at a party the weekend before.

Again, neither the girl nor her friends involved were interviewed for the Shock Docs. Neither were any of the boys involved in a fight that broke out at that same party, or the fight in the classroom the day of the riot.

Is it possible she was pregnant and upset about that? Did the boys who fought know her? Maybe one was her boyfriend and the other a brother or cousin who found out what had happened. Or maybe it was a cheating situation. Maybe the girl had stepped out on her boyfriend and had gotten knocked up by the other boy.

That’s just as plausible an explanation as a demon infestation. Not to mention a lot more probable of one.

And as far as the students demonstrating preternatural strength by ripping doors off their hinges…were any of them tested for drugs, like LSD? That was pretty prevalent back in the 70s and causes similar shows of superhuman powers.

We don’t know, because The Devil’s Academy doesn’t delve into or present any of those possibilities. It only presents the supernatural ones. Sadly.

Because it is an interesting story. Until the announcement of The Devil’s Academy, I’d never heard of the incident. I was super curious to check it out and was hopeful this would be one of the better installments in the Shock Docs series. It’s, unfortunately, vying for one of the worst.

What happened to the Miami Aerospace Academy?

As mentioned above, the school closed in 1989. From what I can tell, the building where the alleged supernatural riot happened is no longer there.

Another school, a public one, now stands very close to the site, though. If demons were really conjured that day in 1979, they’re long gone and have never reappeared to take hold of any other students. Here’s hoping it stays that way.

Check-In

What do you think happened that day in 1979? Demons? Or drugs, teen hormones, and overactive imaginations run amok? Some combo of it all?